With the 2016 version of Word for Mac, Microsoft offers a solid and long-awaited update to an essential OS X application.
Pros
Find latest Bruin OnLine software applications for Windows.See Windows Software. Windows Software; Mac OS Software. @ucla.edu email address can. BOL is now offering Microsoft Office ProPlus as a service to active UCLA students. Students can download, install, and use full versions of Microsoft Office for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android for free. The Microsoft Office ProPlus suite includes: Word (word processing) Excel (spreadsheets) Outlook (email) PowerPoint (presentations) OneNote.
Brawny word processor: With its solid collection of templates, useful formatting and design tools, and powerful collaboration capabilities, Microsoft Word is what every other word processor is measured against.
Refreshed look: Microsoft's update brings the Mac version of Word a bit more in line with its Windows counterpart, adding the ribbon, for example. Word 2016 for Mac is also optimized for Retina displays and can handle full-screen-mode Multi-Touch gestures.
Living in the cloud: Microsoft Word -- and the rest of the Office for Mac suite -- has hooks into the cloud via Microsoft's OneDrive service. You can store, edit, and automatically update your Word documents from a Mac, a PC, or any mobile device that's part of your plan.
Real-time collaboration: You can share a Word document either from your Mac or through Office Online, and then collaborate in real time with colleagues via OneDrive. Comments are now threaded, making it easier to carry on a conversation in a file.
Fresh design: The ribbon's Design tab for Word offers tools for sprucing up your documents, giving you quick control over colors, fonts, borders, and more.
Cons
Lacking a few OS X features: While it is very much a Mac app, Word for Mac doesn't use OS X's Autosave or support the ability to rename, tag, and change the location of a document in a document's title bar.
Bottom Line
Mac users waited five years between updates to the OS X version of Word, but Microsoft used the time to freshen its word processor's look and expand its collaborations tools, including real-time editing with colleagues. If you are using an earlier version of Word or work collaboratively, this is an essential revision.